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KAUNAS FORTRESS, KAUNAS, LITHUANIA - 2017/01/15: In 1915, the impact of howitzer shells punched through the fort ceilings. The invention of high trajectory, high explosive howitzer technologies rendered the forts obsolete, even before the first short of World War One was fired. Currently, 7 different types of protected bat colonies live in the forts, which are part of the protected species list in Lithuania. The rapid fly-by of the beasts add to the ghostly atmosphere deep inside the forts. Russian Tsar Alexander II, chose Kaunas, Lithuania as the location for the most modern fortress in the Russian Empire. Found in a strategic location in the middle of two rivers, the city has long stood as the barrier between East and West during the Teutonic conquests, Nordic Wars, Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars. Following the construction of thirteen forts - complete with weapons infrastructure, military hospitals and churches - every third man in Kaunas was a soldier in the Russian Tsars army. In the onset of World War One, the fortress fell in just over a week, taking the lives of 20,000 defending soldiers with it. (Photo by Benas Gerdziunas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)